learning to enjoy grace

Month: April 2016

Mornings at our household may or may not resemble a circus getting kids ready for school. We prep the night before, but papers teleport, shoes shrink, or clothes disappear. Someone forgets to brush their teeth or hair – or both. Murphy’s Law requires all of these things to happen on the mornings we’re most pressed for time. It was one…

I was in the dingy basement, bent over the dryer, wrestling with a mess of clean clothes. My mood matched the ineffectiveness of the lone light bulb ill-positioned on the wrong side of the heating duct. Laundry, like “This is the song that never ends,” is just annoying and pointless. Condemning prisoners of war to meaningless, endless work – dig…

When we get stuck. When we fall and fail. When we slip and our sword slices the person we love, instead of the true enemy. We need to know to our core that our identity is neither in our victories nor our failures. Rather, it is enmeshed in the person of Jesus Christ and His unable-to-be-undone victory. There’s nothing quite…

Chains of fear have restrained me from really living more often than I care to recount. Which explains the level of relief and gratitude I experienced after reading a profound explanation of the cliché story, found in 1 Samuel 17, of David and Goliath. You know: Goliath, the 9-foot tall giant, insults the God of Israel and the Israelite army…

Pearl Allard

“In commanding us to glorify Him, God is inviting us to enjoy Him.” ~ C.S. Lewis

I love the sunflower as a spiritual metaphor. Did you know during the sunflower’s bud stage it tracks the sun’s daily movement across the sky? I am an imperfect Son-follower learning to enjoy the grace of Jesus and on mission to nurture others to enjoy it, also — especially the one who thinks she shouldn’t. I am happily-mostly-aftered to my hero of fifteen years and am stay-at-home mama to two crazy-wonderful kids in Michigan. I’ve written for (in)courage, Breathe Christian Writers Conference, and Keys for Kids.